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Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes fourth Black American confirmed to U.S. Supreme Court
Ketanji Brown Jackson was grilled for more than 20 hours about her record as a judge. Now, she's officially been confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Over four days of Senate hearings last month, Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke of her parents struggles through racial segregation and says her path was clearer than theirs as a black American after the enactment of civil rights laws. Now, she's officially been confirmed as the third Black Supreme Court Justice, the seventh woman, and the first Black woman to hold the distinguished position.
Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow was on the floor for Thursday's historic vote and was one of the 53 Senators who voted in favor of her confirmation.
"I am absolutely thrilled. It was very exciting to meet her, to watch her grace and intelligence during 20 hours of hearings," Stabenow said.
The partisan vote was expected, especially after Republicans pressed Jackson on her record, bringing up her representation of Guantánamo Bay detainees as well as her sentencing that she gave to some sex offenders.
Stabenow said her rulings were in line with other judges.
"I think it was incredible the way they exaggerated and took out of context and tried to say she was out of the mainstream when she was very much in that mainstream with other judges - Republicans and Democrats. I found that, for instance, with Senator Graham, who talked about Guantánamo Bay, he supported her for the second-highest court in the land, which is the D C circuit court. He voted Yes, for her, after she had already had those experiences," Stabenow said.
Jackson attended Harvard University and then served as a public defender before working at a private law firm before she was appointed as a member of the U. S Sentencing Commission. Her long history on the bench made it possible for Republicans to find more that they wanted to criticize, according to Oakland University Political Science Associate Professor Diane Hartmus.
"Ketanji Brown Jackson had a significantly longer record as a judge from which to look at four things than any of the recent candidates. She has over 500 opinions as a judge, which does give a lot more ammunition, if you will," Hartmus said.
But Wayne State University Law Professor Robert Sedler said the partisanship has been going on for almost 20 years, when it comes to selecting judges for the Supreme Court.
"The thing that has been troubling to me. Is that she. It's highly qualified to sit on the Supreme Court and in point of fact, so have been all the nominees since 2005 when George W. Bush dominated nochief Justice Roberts and Samuel Alito. What has happened and both parties are guilty of this is that they have politicized the confirmation process," Sedler said.
For many, this is not just history. It's also very personal.
"It makes it possible. It makes it attainable. At first, it was something that was just in the imagination. And now you have a blueprint for so it becomes real becomes very real. And tomorrow probably a lot of people are gonna wake up and say I'm going to law school. A lot of judges who we have right now in Michigan Uprising. Hey I can go for the Michigan Supreme Court. It opens up just a land of possibilities that we did not have on our landscape right now, until this moment," said 3rd circuit court admin Zenell Brown.